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Saturday, September 7, 2013

THE JEWS OF CHINA: RUSSIAN MIGRATION; HARBIN JEWISH CEMETERY

JEWISH MIGRATION TO CHINA:

An article, "Volume Migration of Russian Jews to China...in Harbin, Tianjin, and Shanghi" (author: Pan Guang) describes the history of Jewish arrival in China primarily but not solely, because of the rising tide of anti-Semitism in Russia and Eastern Europe, commencing in the 1880's.

HARBIN JEWISH CEMETERY:
800 + graves and tombstones of the Harbin Jewish Cemetery, originally constructed in 1903, were moved in1958 to the Public Cemetery (aka Huang Shan Public Cemetery). Access to an online inventory of burials is provided by the History Department, Centre for European History and Culture (ZEGK). The cemetery project was led by Prof. Madeleine Herrin in association with the School of Western Studies, Heilongjiang University, under the guidance of Prof. Dan Ben-Canaan.

According to the information, found on the website at: http://www.zegk.uni-heidelberg.de/hist/ausstellungen/harbin/project.html, "The inventory presented provides numbering of each tombstone, defining the material of the stones, listing the inscription on the tombstones and translation of the inscription into English....All findings including the photographs are on display at the database." On the homepage there is a language button for English or German (top, right)

You can browse the Jewish database, beginning at: http://www.zegk.uni-heidelberg.de/hist/data/harbin/index.php. You may note that some of the headstones are inscribed in Hebrew as well as Russian and/or English. Click on a photo for a larger view of the image and for additional information and translation.